The Bank Robbery – I

(Here, I begin another  story in a series  of about 750 words each. If you like it,  and would want to be updated whenever I post the subsequent parts, you might want to subscribe to the posts via email)

During my ( the story is being told by Loktak) wanderings through the various small towns and cities, I was fascinated by strange things and, then, sometimes, I stopped by to observe the quirks of human nature. Once passing through a very small village, I was surprised to see two well dressed guys taking a walk on the dusty village road. They seemed so out of place on that road, that I had no other option but to stop by and, see what they were about.

“It’s so boring here” the taller guy was saying.

“Tell me about it, I have been here for two years now… and for one and a half I was all alone,” the fair guy said.

“Yea, what did you do… before I came here, Doctor.

The fair guy, it seemed, was a doctor. He had a face that was ageless. At a particular age, the face had set itself into a particular shape, and then remained the same way, and it seemed would remain the same way for some more time to come. But judging by his appearance in general, he could not have been more than 28 years of age. The other guy seemed younger, but he was taller and well built. He seemed to have the body and energy of a boxer. As I later discovered, the name of the fair guy was Rahul and the name of the taller guy was Vikas.

‘Well I didn’t stay here for long at a time… I used to go home for longer periods, and then the bank manager and the clerk came along.” Rahul said.

“The bank manager is quite old, I don’t know if we could find anything in common with him. Not that age has anything to do with it, but he is old at heart too”

“Yeah, but, so am I”

“True, true, that you are” Vikas laughed.

I was intrigued by their conversation and I decided to stay in that little village for a while. I followed the two people closely, and by the end of the week I knew all there was to know about them.

Vikas was working as an Engineer for a private company that was setting up a unit in the village. Vikas had been there for six months, and he was very bored of the place already. For the first month he had known no one except the company representative in the village, and thus he had a tough time during that first month.

Rahul, on the other hand, was a doctor appointed by the government to man the Primary health center that catered to that small village, and the surrounding areas. He had been there for two years and being a person not very fond of company he had spend a good enough time in that village. Then about five months back Rahul and Vikas had developed a very good relationship as friends. While Vikas was talkative and social, without being overbearing, Rahul liked to talk too, but he mostly liked to respond, without having to initiate a conversation. He got an ample opportunity for that with Rahul. I was a witness to a great many lengthy conversations between them, and these conversations used to continue late in to the night. As it was a small village, there were no fixed times of work. If there was an emergency they could be contacted at anytime of the day and if there was no work, they had no need to be at the office.

All in all, it was a lazy life. When I was not with either one of the two, I observed the village. It was a valley, with mostly farmers. There were not more than fifty houses in the village and these were huddled together at a distance of about two hundred metres form the main road. On the main road stood three buildings. One of these housed the Engineer’s office and the Doctors clinic; the two other buildings had residences on the top floors , while the ground floors had shops in them, that sold very basic stuff.

There was a bank in the village too, but that was located a bit away from the main village, on the main road. It was a two story building, with the bank office on the ground floor, and the residence of the bank manager and the clerk on the first floor. That was all the staff in the bank, not counting the guard who was too old to even sit straight on the bench. His gun, that seemed to have never been used, had spider webs in the barrel.

Vikas and Rahul often dined with each other. In the days, I was with them they had dined together most days, either at Rahuls’ place or at Vikas’. Vikas was a lover of drinks, it seemed, while Rahul didn’t drink at all. So if on any day Vikas had a yearning for the bottle he would call up Rahul and invite him over, and on other days they would dine at Rahul’s. Both had hired cooks, so cooking of the food was not a problem, but the village could not provide them with stuff they were used to eating. So, what they did instead was get their quota for the week, or two weeks, whenever they went home.

…Cont.